Chapter 1 The Beginning

When Nie Yan opened his eyes again, he was in a human city. He glanced at the surrounding buildings; it should be the City of Light. He didn't know why, but he had come to this city. He looked at his wrist, where an activation rune for a magic teleportation array was engraved. A strange power was contained within, and he could activate the teleportation gate at any time, returning to the barbarian Kroyetz. However, this teleportation array could only be used once.

Nie Yan suddenly noticed that many players around him were looking over, their faces filled with shock.

Following their gazes, Nie Yan looked down and focused on the Sword of Zennarde in his hand. This Sword of Zennarde flickered with a captivating light, and black flames burned fiercely. It was a flame sword! Even if Nie Yan hid the light, it was still like this—a crystal sword body with sharp barbs attached to the side.

They had never seen a short sword with such a shocking appearance.

"Damn, what kind of sword is that?"

"I don't know, never seen it before!" the players whispered.

"Isn't that Nie Yan, the guild leader of Niu Ren Tribe? Why did he come to the City of Light?"

"I don't know, I heard that Niu Ren Tribe and Zhan Dao Shi Xue (Warblade Bloodlust) are not on good terms."

Hearing the players' whispers, Nie Yan made no comment. City of Light, this was his first time here. He would come back next time. He tucked the short sword into his waist and walked towards the teleportation array.

"You're finally out," Guo Huai sent a message to Nie Yan, because he saw that Nie Yan's displayed coordinates were the City of Light. Nie Yan had set Guo Huai to view his location, so Guo Huai could see his coordinates.

Nie Yan smiled and said, "How is the guild developing recently? Are the major guilds making any moves?"

"We've cleared out three fortresses, but we don't know how to arrange them yet. We're waiting for you to come up with ideas. Also, there's some news. The Holy Roman Empire already has two fortresses. In addition, Triumph Empire, Holy Light Flame, and Garan Temple each have one fortress. Zhan Dao Shi Xue already has five fortresses, and the Mage Alliance and Holy Guardians each have three. The Kuang Zhan (Berserker) Alliance already has two fortresses," Guo Huai said. Niu Ren Tribe barely kept up with the pace, but the three fortresses that had just been cleared were still blank slates, with no development at all, lagging behind Zhan Dao Shi Xue, the Mage Alliance, and the Holy Guardians.

"Did you watch the video I sent you?" Guo Huai asked.

"I watched it," Nie Yan said. In the video, the fortress of Zhan Dao Shi Xue was already taking shape. Many merchants had moved in, and commerce had begun to develop, and the operation was quite successful.

"We have to speed up too," Guo Huai said. Zhan Dao Shi Xue was in the City of Light next door, giving them a strong sense of urgency. If Zhan Dao Shi Xue developed, the first step would definitely be to unite Holy Light Flame and Triumph Empire, with the spearhead pointing directly at Niu Ren Tribe!

After having a fortress, the guild headquarters would have to be moved to the fortress. In the future, the guild's progress would be closely related to the fortress. If the fortress fell, the guild headquarters might be destroyed, and the guild level would drop by two levels.

Niu Ren Tribe must first guard its own fortress, especially the fortress where the guild headquarters was located, in order to gradually expand. If Longyue Financial Group obtained enough benefits in the Niu Ren Tribe fortress, they would continue to invest in Niu Ren Tribe, which would form a virtuous interaction and create common interests. As long as Niu Ren Tribe guarded the fortress, the stores established by Longyue Financial Group in the fortress would be able to obtain continuous income. If the Niu Ren Tribe fortress fell, Longyue Financial Group's source of income in the virtual game would be cut off by other financial groups.

A situation of heroes dividing up the territory was slowly forming.

"I'll go to the fortress later," Nie Yan said. Now that the major guilds had just competed for the fortress, they were fortifying their fortresses, and there would be no battles for the time being.

Nie Yan teleported to Carol City and walked outside Carol City.

The first fortress of the Niu Ren Tribe was on the edge of the Crimson Dream Forest, halfway up the mountain, dominating the highlands, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Guo Huai set the guild headquarters here after obtaining Nie Yan's consent.

This fortress was named Everlasting City by Nie Yan, which was a homophone of the last two characters of Niu Ren Tribe.

Nie Yan rode his horse in the wilderness and looked towards Everlasting City. On the high slope, a fortress stood, covering an area of about 2000*2000 yards. Outside was a wall more than thirty yards high. There were not many buildings inside, but it could be foreseen that a magnificent fortress city would rise here in the future.

In his previous life, this was the first fortress of Holy Light Flame. The terrain was easy to defend and difficult to attack, causing the Holy Roman Empire to suffer several defeats under the city.

However, in this life, this fortress had changed hands. Nie Yan wanted to build it into a truly Everlasting City!

Nie Yan rode his Falkner warhorse into the fortress. At first glance, there were only a few buildings on the empty ground, and they were just the dilapidated buildings left behind after the dark creatures lived here. After the fortress was rebuilt, these would be demolished.

Thousands of guild members were guarding here, and they greeted Nie Yan when they saw him return.

"Hello, boss."

"Hello, Leader Nie Yan."

Nie Yan looked into the distance, and several people walked towards him. Guo Huai, Can Lan Dao Guang (Brilliant Saber Light), Shui Se Yan Tou (Smoky Waterpipe), and others were all among them.

"You're here. We drew a construction blueprint and were about to show it to you," Guo Huai said.

Nie Yan smiled at the team members present. He looked at Shui Se Yan Tou. Shui Se Yan Tou was wearing a level 45 God of War Praise suit, with silver-white armor all over his body, looking energetic.

"Did you get the equipment back?" Nie Yan smiled. Shui Se Yan Tou seemed to be doing well recently.

"Fortunately, with the help of Can Lan Dao Guang, Shi Li Hua Sha (Ten Miles of Painted Gauze), and others, I got it back soon," Shui Se Yan Tou showed a smile. During this period, the strength of the brothers of the Fallen Leaf Studio slowly improved. Although the Fallen Leaf Studio was gone, they occasionally took on tasks in the Assassin Alliance and could get a lot of income.

"How is the studio's financial situation? If there is a problem, tell us," Nie Yan said. Shui Se Yan Tou was now a member of the Niu Ren Tribe. If there were any difficulties, the Niu Ren Tribe would not stand idly by.

"It's okay now. After the equipment is upgraded, we can take on many higher-paying tasks. We give the money we earn to Mu En to invest, and we have made a lot of money. Now the finances have improved. It is estimated that in five or six days, we will be able to pay off our debts, and it will be almost time to make a profit," Shui Se Yan Tou said. After they were kicked out of the house, they did not have much debt, but all the accumulated savings over the years were gone, so they could only start from scratch, but life was not impossible.

"That's good," Nie Yan nodded, took the blueprint from Guo Huai. The blueprint showed the construction plan of the fortress, including the location of the guild headquarters, the location of the commercial area, and so on.

Nie Yan studied the blueprint and, combined with some successful fortresses from his previous life, made some modifications to the blueprint.

"Since this fortress is related to the life and death of the guild, one layer of city walls in front is not enough. There must be three layers. The three layers are placed side by side, with a distance between them. The doors of the three walls cannot be placed together, and enemies cannot be allowed to rush in," Nie Yan proposed the first modification.

If the people outside rushed into the first door, they would find that a wall was blocking the way. They would have to go a long way between the two walls to find the second door. After finding the second door, there was another wall, and they would have to continue to go a long distance to find the third door. In this way, the time to rush into the fortress would be greatly extended. If giant crossbows were placed on the city walls and mages were stationed on the city walls on both sides, and warriors were stationed on the passages between the two walls. If the other party did not have heavy siege equipment such as trebuchets, they would not be able to rush into the fortress at all.

Guo Huai's eyes lit up and said, "Good idea, this will greatly improve the defense capability."

"This idea is indeed very creative," Shui Se Yan Tou nodded.

Can Lan Dao Guang and others also strongly agreed.

"In addition, the teleportation point has to be changed. Build the commercial area in the back. After all, Longyue Financial Group is our investor. We must ensure their interests in the game. In addition, I have an energy core here, which can be used to make a protective barrier for the fortress," Nie Yan said. In this way, this fortress could be called an impregnable fortress.

Everyone agreed on the planning of the fortress and began to build it.

After Longyue Financial Group invested a large amount of funds, the Niu Ren Tribe had enough construction funds. Nie Yan began to arrange the fortress. Three consecutive city walls rose from the ground, each one higher than the other, so that the players on the three walls could output firepower to the open space outside the fortress.

If the fourth and fifth city walls were built again, there would be no effect, but it would reduce the land area inside the fortress.

A towering building in the center of the fortress was the guild headquarters. A teleportation array was set up to connect to the teleportation array in the Carol City guild office. Then, streets radiated out to the city walls in all directions. Wherever there was a problem, the teleported players could immediately support it. The commercial area was placed in a safer place in the rear, and in front were the level 1 siege machine manufacturing point, the level 1 mage tower, the level 1 Ares statue, and other buildings. The siege machine manufacturing point could manufacture various siege and defense equipment, such as ballistae, etc., and in the later stages, it could manufacture some trebuchets and other items. The mage tower could provide magic power to the mages, and the Ares statue could increase some attacks to the warriors defending the city. For example, level 1 was an increase of 3%, and there would be more useful buildings in the later stages. In addition, there were also civil houses to be built. One civil house could provide a certain population. In the city defense battle, the number of civil houses determined the number of players participating in the city defense battle.

Under Nie Yan's guidance, buildings rose from the ground, closely arranged, densely scattered, and at a glance, there were hundreds of buildings, which were quite large in scale. Now, what was lacking was popularity.

~~I'm sick. I often have nosebleeds these two or three days. Snail will rest for a day or two and guarantee 2-3 updates during this time. The first place on the monthly ticket list, Snail will be back!